My life was just flipped, turned upside down and I didn't even have to move to California. It just took one photo, a dozen instant messages, and a handful of emails to confirm that I've been lied to by musicians.

My first reaction when I saw the photo above was to believe that it could be fake, but several searches for more information led to the same answer: It's from a summer performance of a band called Immortal and it's real. The band had used a fake wall of amps for some reason—probably to appear more "hardcore" or whatever it is metal bands aspire to be—and got caught.

The next thought was that perhaps it could it be just a rare one-time act of concert stage trickery. But unfortunately a series of emails and instant messages to musicians, stage hands, equipment providers, and club managers revealed the sad truth: It's not too uncommon for bands to set up fake stacks of speakers or amps—hell, empty amp cabinets are frequently sold for that precise purpose.

Was I the last person on the planet to discover this sham? I feel deceived, but I suppose that's some sort of karmic punishment for browsing Reddit when I should be writing a Gizmodo post.